10 days later

I've officially been in the United States for 10 days and so much has happened already. I rushed back to Pennsylvania to spend time with all my old friends and then graduated from Penn State on Saturday. It still hasn't hit me that I am a college graduate. Everyone was right though, no one really understands my semester at sea experience, but I don't blame them. It's one of those things you just have to experience for yourself. While at Penn State I ran into a friend of a friends who did SAS Spring 06 and when we saw each other we immiediately hugged, for the first time ever. We were never friends, but it was like the SAS experience brought us closer, even though we were on different voyages. My friends and family are both sick of me talking about SAS and I find myself calling my ship friends to talk to them about little things that remind me of places we've been to. I can't wait til July when they all come out to see me. I love them all and feel a little empty without them, but I know I still need more time for adjustment. As for my real life back in the states, I plan to spend the summer in State College with friends and then this is tentative, but I may be moving to nyc in the fall for an Americorps position. In the meanwhile, Ill be applying for dental school.

Before I close this blog, I appreciate everyone who has read up on it. I know there are people out there who read this and we probably have never met, but thank you for taking interest in my journey around the world. By far, it was the most amazing experience of my life til now and every second was worth every penny. I love SAS, all the crew members for all their hard work, all the faculty and staff, and all my peers. God bless all of you on your journey in life. I am so happy I got to spend this 4 month dream with all of you!

Check this website out...

The first day in Kobe, us girls were walking around the shops and were trying on hats and sunglasses. The owner of the store took a picture of us and put it on the stores website. Once you are on the homepage and click on ''Diary'' in the lower left hand corner and then scroll down. Next to our picture it says something about the US, but the rest is in Japanese. Enjoy our fame..

http://www.casquillo.jp/

A day in Kyoto

NIJO CASTLE
On the fourth day in Kobe I decided to take a day trip to Kyoto all by myself. Now that its over, I wish I would have done more trips by myself. It was so nice to just do what I wanted and not wait for other people, plus I felt more independent. Everything kind of just worked out. On my way to Kyoto, I was having problems getting my ticket and a guy from Michigan came to my rescue. He’s studying here in Kobe working on his PhD in developmental biology. We had a good conversation on the train and when he left, I realized that we never exchanged names. Kinda sad how we shared a few moments together and we will probably never see each other again. Mystery...........

When I arrived in Kyoto, again I was lost and didn’t know which way to go and a young man from India came to my rescue. He walked me to the Nijo Castle, and here I ran into another sasser, Jeff. He was by himself too so we talked and walked around the castle together. He was using the bus system around the city so he showed me where/how to catch the local bus. He also recommended the Kiyomizu Temple so I decided to go there. The entire temple was made from wood and there was a beautiful garden behind the temple. After this, I then walked to the Gion area which is known for the geishas. I saw a few, but they walked past me so quickly I didn’t get a chance to take their picture.


Japanese Garden at the Nijo Castle

Me & Jeff

Kiyomizu Temple

Treats I bought for my brother.

Poster of a Geisha in the Gion

YMCA Service Visit in Kobe, Japan

On the third day in Kobe, I did a service trip to a few YMCA`s with SAS. There were 7 of us girls and the trip was all day. The first stop was to a kindergarten class. This is a picture of me passing out pencils and toys to the kids. They were so well behaved; they actually waited in line for me to pass out the goodies. Im sad that this was my last service visit. :[


Each age group wore a different color cap. This is a group of 4 year olds.

These are training chopsticks that the little kids used. How adorable is that?

I am lighting incense before entering the temple.

This is the group of girls I went on the service trip with. In the back you can see our two tourguides. They both work for the YMCA.

At the end of the visits to the schools and nursery, our tourguide took us to a local temple.

Baseball Game in Osaka

The baseball game in Osaka was a lot of fun! The fans were really energetic anｄ crazy! Here is a picture of me before the game started. Ethan and Jakey, you would have had a lot of fun at this game too!

I thought this was kinda neat...these girls walked around with mini kegs on their back and would fill up beer for people.

Balloons are a big deal at these games. During the 7th inning stretch, everyone releases them into the air and it looks cool in the stadium.

And TWICE I got put ont he big screen!!!!!! Naturally,I was excited!

Me and the Mascot

These are a bunch of 13 year old Japanese girls I met while walking around the stadium. They were really funny and were practicing their English with me. All they wanted to talk about was my boyfriend....

Hong Kong

HK has an awesome skyline

all the sassers out

with our vodka, classy

dim sum

street food

play in HK

Bruce Lee

streets of HK

When you all asked what Hong Kong was like, all I could think of was that it was like New York City, but with Chinese people everywhere….and it is. Luckily for me, I had Shelly who knew the ropes of Hong Kong because she studied abroad here last semester, so she was my own little Chinese tour guide. The ship only docked into Hong Kong for two days but we had the option of meeting the ship at its next port, Qingdao, which is a city northeast in China. Most people either flew or took the train to Beijing to see the Great Wall, but since my grandma and I took a trip there after I graduated high school, I decided to just spend four full days in Hong Kong.

Since Shelly was familiar with everything, she took us to all the hot spots of shopping and places to get cheap massages. On the last day I got my eye lashes permed, and I love it. So now for the next few weeks, I don’t have to curl my eyelashes. Hopefully it’ll last til my graduation so you all can see it. In HK we did some site seeing, but mostly walked around the city shopping and just absorbing in the city life.

Since all the sassers were still in HK the first night, we all got to go out and of course take over an area. Everyone migrated to a district called LKF where we chugged a bottle of vodka that was purchased at a local 7-11. Later we learned that many locals pregame outside of 7-11’s because its cheaper. As usual, the night was fun….and ill just leave it at that.
The rest of the nights, Shel took us to places where it was ladies night meaning not only free cover, but free drinks all night, or until the wee morning hours. We also got to hangout with Shelly’s old friends from the university and that was fun too. The highlight of my Hong Kong experience was definitely eating great food.

On April 21st, we flew to Qingdao in the afternoon and arrived late night. It was a pain getting to the ship because no one spoke English and Shelly couldn’t use her Cantonese skills since everyone in China speaks Mandarin. After we collected our luggage and went through customs we finally communicated with a guy to take us to the ship by showing him Chinese characters which supposedly meant the address of the port that the ship was at. Little did we know, he was bullshitting us and did not know where the ship was and we were lost for almost an hour. He ended up calling one of his friends who spoke English to talk to us, but even that was difficult since her English wasn’t very well. Finally, we saw some sassers randomly walking around and they pointed us in the right direction. I will confidently say that I think that Qingdao was one of the worst ports we’ve been to. Our ship was docked in an industrial area where there were bulldozers and ships that looked like they were digging for oil or something. It was not very welcoming and was pretty shady. Barely anyone could go out because of lack of communication and because of shadiness.

On the last day I went on an SAS trip to a home visit and it was also probably one of the worst SAS trips I have been on, but I guess they are just hit and miss because most of the SAS trips I’ve been to have been excellent. The tour guide was not very informative and it was definitely not organized well at all. We hung out at a local family’s house for about 45 minutes where we asked them questions and they asked us questions. The family had great hospitality; they served us tea, fruit, and other snacks. No one in the family spoke English, but our tour guide translated for us. Later that day I met up with the girls back at the ship. We had our last authentic Chinese meal and then did some shopping at another market. We were only there for a short while because the quality of everything was poor and nothing at this point could have beaten the shopping in Vietnam or Hong Kong. So we went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on ramen and water, haha. I think its safe to say that SAS should change it’s port of call when Wal-Mart is the highlight of everyone’s trip.

Overall, HK definitely made up for the lack of Qingdao’s tourist opportunities. I wish the ship could have just stayed in HK longer, but supposedly it costs 20K for us to port there for one night. One last thing to mention about Qingdao, it was cold! The first port where I needed a sweater! And it was cold on the ship the days between China and Japan. It’s supposed to be warmer after we leave Japan, lets cross our fingers so I can work on my tan before I head home. I can’t believe we’re at our last port already =o( So sad……